Brazil has a reputation for having some of the most beautiful women in the world. And because of five centuries of the descendents of Africans, Europeans and Indians continuously mixing, Brazil is believed to have one of the most diverse array of phenotypes in the world. The problem is that Brazil rarely shows this diversity in its media. For example, Brazil has

promoted the Miss Brasil contest for 54 years, since 1954. But in those 54 years, only one black woman has ever been crowned Miss Brasil, Deise Nunes de Souza, who won the crown in 1986. Even the United States, which is considered to be one of the most racist countries in the world, has crowned seven black women Miss America. The first was Vanessa Williams who won the crown in 1984. Why are the two countries in opposite positions in terms of diversity of beauty? In general, Brazil is believed to be a country without racism and the United States is believed to be very racist. In reality, both countries have excluded and discriminated against its citizens of African descent. The difference is that the image of the average American citizen is white; the image of the Brazilian is a non-white person. Elites of Brazil have always wanted the image of the country to be white. Thus, because the image of America is already white, the United States can permit more visibility of its citizens of color without altering its white image in the imagination of the world. In order for Brazil to be seen as a white or whiter country, it must hide the true color of its population.